1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to manufacturing and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for securing components to each other using fasteners. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for establishing a focal length for a camera used in installing fasteners.
2. Background
In manufacturing objects, such as aircraft, components may be secured to each other to form the aircraft. For example, without limitation, skin panels may be attached to frames, spars may be attached to ribs, and other components may be attached to each other to form the aircraft. Fasteners may be used to attach parts to each other. A fastener may be a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more components together. A particular type of fastener may have various requirements for installing the fastener. For example, without limitation, a fastener may have a required amount of torque, swage force, preload, and/or other parameters.
This information may be located only on the package containing the fasteners. When the package is opened, this information may be lost or may be entered into a data processing system or paper record system. One manner in which verification of parameters for a fastener may be made is to take an image of the fastener and identify information for installing the fastener from the image. A camera may be mounted on a tool to obtain the image. This image may be sent to a computer system, which analyzes the image to identify information for use in installing the fastener.
Although this type of process for obtaining information about fasteners may be quicker than manual checking of records or tables, the process may be undesirable if the images do not have a quality sufficient for making the desired identification of fasteners.
With the current systems that use cameras to create the images of fasteners, these cameras may be in a fixed position on a fastener installation system. The parts to be fastened to each other may be moved into a preselected location on the tool. The image of the fastener on the surface of the structure may be taken and sent to a computer system. The computer system may analyze the image and return information used by the tool to install the fastener.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus which takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.